Changing demographics and hospital downsizing have placed increasing demands on the home care sector. Many of those receiving in-home care are seniors whose chronic conditions require a collaborative approach. Both providers' paternalistic orientations toward senior clients and seniors' passivity within provider-client interactions have the…

Despite the focus on burden of caregiving in gerontological research, studies have shown that few caregivers are overly burdened. This article compares predictors of role-specific burden and two quality-of-life measures among caregivers experiencing heavy care demands to assess role-impact on each. The study included 92 community-based caregivers…

Caregivers play a determining role in choosing treatments for persons with Alzheimer's disease. The objective of this study was to examine caregivers' willingness to have persons with Alzheimer's disease continue taking cholinesterase inhibitors in the event that any 1 of 11 adverse effects was to occur. Data were gathered via postal questionnaire…

Although family scholars conceptualize caregiving in terms of networks of carers, little attention has been given to equity within these groups. Siblings comprise a prevalent caregiving network of members who feel responsible for parent care, expect to share these responsibilities with each other, and look to each other to evaluate the fairness of…

This article identifies home care practitioners' perceptions of the responsibilities, difficulties, and needs for support of caregivers. It is based on a study undertaken in Quebec with 55 practitioners and 10 administrators from 10 CLSCs located in rural, urban, and metropolitan areas. The study had a qualitative, multiple-case design and used…

In many countries one approach to supporting family-and-friend caregivers is direct financial or monetary support. Debates about the benefits and consequences of such policies pervade the literature. Building on the premise that values underlie public policy, the paper examines four policy paradoxes in the literature and uses selected examples…

This article offers reflection on the validity of relational data such as used in social network analysis. Ongoing research on the transformation of the support network of caregivers of persons with an Alzheimer-type disease provides the data to fuel the debate on the validity of participant report. More specifically, we sought to understand the…

For many years there has been an underlying pathology within the literature about families with children and adults with intellectual disabilities (Helff & Glidden, 1998). This literature has emphasized stress and burden, incapacity and dependency, leading to negative stereotyping of families in this context. Over the last 2 decades research has…

This article examines the struggle to win lifetime eligibility for selected home care benefits provided through the Veterans Independence Program (VIP) for veterans' widows in recognition of their years of unpaid caregiving--a policy change eventually implemented between 2003 and 2004. It explores how arguments on their behalf shifted from…

The Functional Transitions Model (FTM) integrates the theoretical notions of progressive functional decline associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), excess disability, and transitions occurring intermittently along the trajectory of functional decline. Application of the Functional Transitions Model to clinical practice encompasses the paradox of…

Accessible support programs can improve health outcomes for family caregivers of older relatives with a chronic condition. Over the course of 6 months, 27 experienced family caregivers provided weekly support via the telephone to 66 individuals, either new family caregivers of seniors recently diagnosed with stroke or newly vulnerable family…

Based on a qualitative study of home care workers, this paper aims to understand elder abuse of Chinese Canadians. The findings show disrespect is the key form elder abuse takes in the Chinese community. As a culturally specific form of abuse, disrespect remains invisible under categories of elder abuse derived from a Western cultural perspective.…

This work seeks to identify factors that facilitate or diminish care-providers' propensity to improve continence care in long-term care (LTC) settings. We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative study using focus group methodology in four long-term care institutions in Montreal, QC. Forty-two nurses, nursing assistants, and orderlies caring for…

The decision to move a family member with dementia to a nursing home is a difficult experience for caregivers. Complex psychosocial factors are involved and knowledge of predictive factors alone is insufficient. Using grounded theory, this study explores the decision-making process with regards to institutionalization, from the perspective of…

Canadians are experiencing increased life expectancy and chronic illness requiring end-of-life care. There is limited research on the multiple roles for family members providing home-based palliative care. Based on a larger ethnographic study of client-family-provider relationships in home-based palliative care, this qualitative secondary analysis…